Since PPL seems to be the only website that archives reported abused adoptee cases, do we have enough collected information/material to determine which states/services provide the WORST, most negligent, home-study programs... or are there just too many not disclosed and not reported?

I myself would like to see which home-study service providers go 'above-and beyond', for the sake of child-safety... and which home-study services provide minimal checks and effort. After reading the report written for Mancuso.... yeoooow! It's scary to see what social workers working for an adoption agency are NOT doing or asking... and it's clear, pedophiles are passing, and having their way with adopted children.

I wish we could make such a break down per state, per county, per agency involved. Unfortunately it's impossible to even find all the cases of abuse in adoptive families. Some make the news, especially when very serious, but many go unreported. As far as I know, no state mandates the collection of such information, so even though our case archive has become substantial, it catches only a fraction of the abuse cases taking place. On top of that, in many of the cases we do learn about, the responsible authorities are not mentioned in news paper articles or court documents.

The only way to find out which agencies go above and beyond for the sake of child safety and which provide minimal checks and effort is to have adoptive parents report about their home study experience. Unfortunately this will likely lead to reports of only the "good" agencies.

I totally agree, numbers are based on what's reported, and the truth is, too many cases are NOT reported, or not reported as 'foster' parent, or 'adoptive' parent.... instead, the child abuser will be reported as 'parent' or 'guardian', not helping much for statistic/study purposes.

No mandates for this information doesn't help, either.

Well, it just so happens, early this morning, I was lucky enough to learn more about Lubbock.

First thing a lot of people will automatically think is -- Lubbock (bio) parents suck... they ought to lose the kids, and let good people who want to adopt, adopt those kids, so the abuse rate will go down. Yes, I actually hear people say this sort of stuff out-loud to me.... and it's funny...people honestly believe foster and adoptive parents make the best parents... APs never hit in excess, never abuse, never drink or take drugs, or do any of the dumb or dangerous things breeders often do to their bio-children...

Yea, and I know where a person can buy a bridge that's real cheap.

PPL's abuse archives help disprove the myth that adoption/adoptive parents always put the basic needs of children, first. PPL's abuse archives show which circumstances and situations are neither honoring nor serving a child's best interest.

Lumbering back to Lubbock in the news...

The news article about abuse rates in Lubbock is very brief, and it does not feature category breakdowns that would help others see if the rate of abuse in adoptive homes is higher, lover or equal to the rate of abuse in foster homes or homes without any children put in-care.

This absence in comparison is a problem.

As an advocate for children put in-care, when I read, "abuse rates are rising', and 'more children are put into care', and 'more foster/adoptive parents are needed', I would like to see a break-down of information that identifies which abuse cases took place in foster homes... adoptive homes.. and homes free from children who have been put in-care.

I think this is information people would like to read and see and I think it's information social services can produce, since I can't think of many situations where a SS agency is not involved in a foster/adoption placement.

Keeping a close watch on post-placement abuse cases has its benefits, too. At the very least, broken-down abuse stats can be used to help social services providers recognize which services need improvement, where abuse-prone pockets exist in a county/state and what agencies need the more staffing and fixing. But of course, one must remember the enemy to all SS services: 'budget cuts'. Budget cuts, due to deficit problems and the economy, will be the COD for so many services created to help protect children and families.

<shaking head>.... social services in the US are such a mess.

Anyway.... I'll admit, I'm bad with numbers. I'm a visual-girl... I do much better with pie-charts and easy graphs, so when I read an independent agency report that states, in Texas, '"10 kids out of every 1,000 are confirmed" to be abused", and Lubbock is almost 13% above that average, my head gets funny. It's hard to get a good picture, a correct sense, of who is getting hurt, neglected, sexually molested or exploited each year. I for one would love to know what percent of foster children are being abused each year, and what percent of adopted children are being abused each year, and I'd love to see how those numbers compare to the cases where the children are abused, but never touched/tainted by social services and the care-system. I would also love to know why Lubbock seems so unsafe for children these days. What are local social service agencies NOT telling the press/media?